CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Even if you watched only one Phillies game last year, you caught an irritated look or a choice word from a hitter, pitcher or catcher following a borderline pitch.
That called third strike? Totally off the plate.
That 3-2 pitch called a ball to load the bases? Totally in the zone.
Players will be able to challenge those pitches this year with MLB introducing the ABS Challenge System. Each team will have two challenges at the beginning of the game, although there’s more to it than that. Essentially, though, win a challenge, keep the challenge. Lose a challenge, lose the challenge.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson said he will have no rules about challenges early in the Grapefruit League schedule, which begins on Saturday against the reigning American League champion Blue Jays in Dunedin.
But the Phillies will implement rules in time. Thomson said the team’s analytics group will provide best practices for ABS, likely based on count, outs and inning. Like, maybe don’t challenge if there are two outs and nobody on base in the bottom of the second inning, but take a shot on a close pitch with the bases loaded and two outs in the eighth.
It’s going to be a learning process for everybody.
“Personally, on and off the plate, side to side, I feel like I’m very good,” Phillies shortstop Trea Turner said. “Up and down, I sometimes think I’m right, and I’m wrong. I think that’s part of this. You’ve got to know what you’re good at. I don’t plan on challenging too much, but if I do, it’ll probably be on the corners more so than up and down.
“You’re going to have to learn. You’re going to challenge something, you’re going to be wrong and you’re going to make adjustments. Everyone’s different. We’ll see. Hopefully we save them for bigger situations, you know, bases loaded. And even if you’re wrong, that’s kind of the situation you should use it in, not necessarily the first pitch of a game or something like that.”
Turner jokingly challenged the first pitch of a Grapefruit League game last spring against former Nationals teammate and friend Max Scherzer.
He won’t be doing that again.
Thomson said the Phillies might restrict who is allowed to challenge, based on position or individual. (Some teams are considering not allowing pitchers to challenge.)
Most Phillies teammates think Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber will be the best at challenging pitches for the simple reason that they have the best sense of the strike zone.
Nobody has a better view than catchers, so the Phillies will put their trust in J.T. Realmuto in a big spot, too.
But the pitchers? Well …
“No, absolutely not,” Phillies right-hander Brad Keller said. “We’re so hyper focused on doing what we have to do. Sometimes I’ll look up and I’m like, ‘It’s right there,’ and then you go back and look, and it’s way off. That’s why I think I won’t do it. Percentage-wise, I think I’m right 20% of the time. I’m like, ‘That’s a [freaking] strike.’ I’m out there getting [upset], then I come back [into the dugout] and I’m embarrassed. It wasn’t even close.”
Phillies catcher Garrett Stubbs got experience with ABS last season with Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
He agrees with Keller.
“No pitchers. No pitchers,” he said. “Pitchers are not good at challenging. People get emotional about the challenges. Like, if you get dinged for close pitches, you’ll start to get [upset] and you’ll want to challenge. You have to check yourself.
“I think it’s pretty 50-50 for me. Sometimes you’re challenging based on situation. It’s close enough and it’s like, whatever, you try. So, you’ll get them wrong. But here’s the thing: We're not umpires in the sense that when we’re playing the game, my first instinct isn’t looking at the pitch and thinking, ‘Is this a ball or strike?’ It’s, ‘I’m going to make this pitch look good,' or, 'I might need to block this,' or, 'There’s a runner on first, I might need to throw him out.’ There are way more things that we’re thinking about as catchers when the pitch is coming in than just calling it a ball or strike.”
And some days are just better than others.
“Some days the eyes are working,” Phillies left fielder Brandon Marsh said. “Some days they’re not. I definitely feel better east and west vs. up and down. Just because the guys throwing up have the extra up and the guys throwing down have the extra down. A lot of the guys’ movement is really late. It’s just like, we don't have that time to process the pitch and think about it, and then challenge it. It has to be pretty immediate.”